A Latino night takes place in Riyadh this Saturday and in the main event, Mexican Gilberto Ramirez puts his WBA cruiserweight title on the line against WBO boss Chris Billam-Smith.
DAZN will broadcast Ramirez against Billam-Smith live on television.
Although Ramirez (46-1, 30 KOs) had great potential and reigned as the WBO super middleweight champion, he had mostly won against unimpressive opponents.
He finally lost his unbeaten record in November 2022. clearly surpassed by Dmitry Bivol in the fight for the WBA (Super) light heavyweight title.
A move to cruiserweight produced some of his best performances, and a big points win over Joe Smith Jr. paved the way for a world title shot, where he secured the WBA title in March with a 10-2 round victory over Arsen Goulamirian. Belt secured.
After an early loss to Richard Riakporhe, Billam-Smith (20-1, 13 KOs) worked his way up the rankings and eventually won the WBO title in a narrow majority decision victory over Lawrence Okolie, with Okolie losing a total of three times.
The Bournemouth man then forced Mateusz Masternak to retire after eight rounds, leaving Billam-Smith with two scorecards at that point, and he last defended in June, getting revenge on Riakporhe with one Point win at Selhurst Park.
Prediction: Ramirez is always big at whatever weight he fights and will be the biggest test of Billam-Smith's career. I think this might be too much of a bridge for the Englishman and Ramirez could score a stoppage in the later rounds.
Chris Billam-Smith is confident he will get the job done on Saturday
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| | Live November 16th | FREE on DAZN |Ramirez and Barboza prepare for war
A massive fight with world title implications headlines the undercard, with former unified super lightweight world champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-1, 18 KOs) defeating Arnold Barboza Jr. (30-0, 11 KOs) in twelve rounds. hits.
Since his only loss to Josh Taylor in an attempt to eliminate the division in 2021, Ramirez has fought once a year since then, winning against Jose Pedraza (UD12), Richard Commey (KO11) and Rances Barthelemy (UD12) for the number one contendership to become for the WBC title.
Barboza is long undefeated, boxing twice in 2024, an eighth-round retirement win over Xolisani Ndongeni, backed up by a narrow split decision win over Sean McComb last time out. This is his first scheduled twelve-round contest, having completed ten rounds eight times.
Prediction: I'm leaning towards the more experienced Ramirez here to get the job done on points.
There is no better place than Riyadh Season's for the fight he's been waiting for
— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing)
Jose Ramirez 
Arnold Barboza Jr. will give it his all 𝐖 𝐀 𝐑 
| | LIVE November 16th | FREE on DAZNFarmer has everything to do against Zepeda
The interim WBC lightweight title is up for debate: the talented William Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) meets Tevin Farmer (33-6-1, 8 KOs).
Zepeda is one to watch and has been at championship level in his last five fights. His last four fights all ended early, and after forcing Maxi Hughes to retire after four rounds in March, he knocked out Giovanni Cabrera in three rounds in July.
Farmer, a former IBF featherweight world champion, suffered a significant points defeat to Raymond Muratalla. Zepeda may be too hot for Farmer here and can win early.
World minimumweight championship is up for grabs
Another world title fight takes place at minimumweight, where Oscar Collazo (10-0, 7 KOs) should defend his WBO belt for the fourth time with a points victory over Thammanoon Niyomtrong (25-0, 9 KOs).
Return of Duarte and Ziyad
Oscar Duarte (27-2-1, 22 KOs) can win his super lightweight 12-rounder on points against Botirzhon Akhmedov (10-3, 9 KOs), and welterweight contender Ziyad Almaayouf (6-0, 1 KOs) should win cards over six against Juan Carlos Ramirez Garcia (5-6, 0 KOs).
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